A somewhat controversial change in iOS 11 will come with a little more clarity in the forthcoming iOS 11.2 update, with the latest beta adding a prompt informing users that turning off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth via Control Center doesn't fully disable them.

Apple made the switch with the launch of iOS 11 in September, ensuring that features such as AirDrop and Apple Watch connectivity remain active even if a user disables wireless connectivity. Rather than turning off the wireless functions completely, flipping the switches in Control Center simply disconnect from networks and third-party accessories.

With the release of iOS 11.2 beta 3 on Monday, Apple has made a small but noteworthy change to help communicate how Control Center works. Upon installing the update, users who disable Wi-Fi or Bluetooth via Control Center are met with a prompt. For Wi-Fi, it reads:

"Disconnecting Nearby Wi-Fi Until Tomorrow. The current Wi-Fi network and others nearby will be disconnected until tomorrow. Wi-Fi will continue to be available for AirDrop, Personal Hotspot, and location accuracy."

And when Bluetooth is toggled in Control Center, iOS 11.2 states:

"Disconnecting Bluetooth Accessories Until Tomorrow. Currently Connected accessories will be disconnected and other accessories will not connect. Bluetooth will continue to be available for Apple Watch, Apple Pencil, Personal Hotspot, and Handoff."

Because iOS 11.2 remains in beta, things could change before the software is released to the public. But as of beta 3, toggling Wi-Fi and Bluetooth in Control Center changes their icons from blue (active) to white (inactive).

To completely turn off either Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, users must delve into the Settings app in iOS, or enable Airplane Mode in Control Center or via Settings.

Comments

So rather than go back to the more intuitive setting, there is a long-winded explanation that looks like it will need to be acknowledged each time. I know there must be a reason they want WiFi enabled for tertiary services, but I rarely use WiFi in public.

My work-around to this is to tell the phone to "forget" all WiFi networks I may have used in the past and use my cell plan data anyplace outside of home, work or family members' homes. That way my phone is not constantly connecting to crappy networks. Face it, most public WiFi is not only inherently unsecured, it is ridiculously slow.

I hope that this prompt screen happens only for the first time the toggle is run. Otherwise, it can be quite annoying if I keep on doing this throughout the day while on the go (e.g., leaving my house/work but my phone won't switch to LTE right away, requiring me to quickly disable WiFi). And what casual users would even read all that text? Perhaps the icons or UI can be altered to better indicate this "temporary toggle".

Yeah this “feature” has a two fold for Apple. 1) It’ll help those -lost cause- users who can’t figure out how to work an iPhone. And 2) this change will allow all those business monitoring and collecting metrics based on WiFi/ Bluetooth while walking into physical locations to collect more accurate data.

If Cook really cared about it’s user base, he’d put in an option to allow me to change this from default disconnect to off. It can default to disconnect, sure, but making me go into settings and turn off WiFi and Bluetooth every time I want to airdrop and worse WiFi every time I leave my house— it’s ludicrous.

Yeah this “feature” has a two fold for Apple. 1) It’ll help those -lost cause- users who can’t figure out how to work an iPhone. And 2) this change will allow all those business monitoring and collecting metrics based on WiFi/ Bluetooth while walking into physical locations to collect more accurate data.

If Cook really cared about it’s user base, he’d put in an option to allow me to change this from default disconnect to off. It can default to disconnect, sure, but making me go into settings and turn off WiFi and Bluetooth every time I want to airdrop and worse WiFi every time I leave my house— it’s ludicrous.

It's all about trying to provide a better user experience. The vast majority of people want good location services (GPS positioning) and are perfectly willing to have WiFi used for that purpose. Apple has apparently learned that people are turning off WiFi as a way to disconnect from their WiFi internet connection, but then are frustrated by their location being less accurate. The control center option meet their (common) needs. Likewise, if you have an Apple Watch or an Apple Pencil, you almost certainly want those devices to stay connected via BT even if you want to disconnect from some speakers. The message Apple intends to present will explain things nicely and most people will be able to ignore it without harm.

My suggestion to you is to review your location services and WiFi preferences rather than using a heavy-handed turn everything off approach when you leave the house. Personally, I trust that Apple is complying with my settings to not allow (for example) the Walmart or Starbucks apps to use my location services and I don't allow my phone to automatically connect to random WiFi hot spots. Therefore I feel perfectly secure leaving WiFi and BT on.

Just curious. How does WiFi help with pinpointing my location through GPS better than cell tower triangulation? Not talking about ibeacons and such inside buildings.It certainly can't help while driving as one would pass through WiFi networks too quickly to be of any use.

Just curious. How does WiFi help with pinpointing my location through GPS better than cell tower triangulation? Not talking about ibeacons and such inside buildings.It certainly can't help while driving as one would pass through WiFi networks too quickly to be of any use.

I think because the location of wifi hotspots is identified via crowd source data placed into online database. This is done by handsets which have GPS built in to phone home the their location when a new wifi network is seen. I believe Android and iPhone handsets can both do this.

If Cook really cared about it’s user base, he’d put in an option to allow me to change this from default disconnect to off. It can default to disconnect, sure, but making me go into settings and turn off WiFi and Bluetooth every time I want to airdrop and worse WiFi every time I leave my house— it’s ludicrous.

ugh. Stop this "If cook cares..." nonsense . How do you know he isn't listening to other users that have complained they couldnt use Air drop and/or location services accuracy?

Still they should 3D touch it to disable completely or a triple toggle: On/disconnect/Off.

Yeah this “feature” has a two fold for Apple. 1) It’ll help those -lost cause- users who can’t figure out how to work an iPhone. And 2) this change will allow all those business monitoring and collecting metrics based on WiFi/ Bluetooth while walking into physical locations to collect more accurate data.

If Cook really cared about it’s user base, he’d put in an option to allow me to change this from default disconnect to off. It can default to disconnect, sure, but making me go into settings and turn off WiFi and Bluetooth every time I want to airdrop and worse WiFi every time I leave my house— it’s ludicrous.

It is quite obvious you have absolutely no clue what this option does.

If Cook really cared about it’s user base, he’d put in an option to allow me to change this from default disconnect to off. It can default to disconnect, sure, but making me go into settings and turn off WiFi and Bluetooth every time I want to airdrop and worse WiFi every time I leave my house— it’s ludicrous.

ugh. Stop this "If cook cares..." nonsense . How do you know he isn't listening to other users that have complained they couldnt use Air drop and/or location services accuracy?

Still they should 3D touch it to disable completely or a triple toggle: On/disconnect/Off.

or, you could turn on flight mode.

still, if a function needs a pop up to explain what it is doing it isn’t very intuitive.

Yeah this “feature” has a two fold for Apple. 1) It’ll help those -lost cause- users who can’t figure out how to work an iPhone. And 2) this change will allow all those business monitoring and collecting metrics based on WiFi/ Bluetooth while walking into physical locations to collect more accurate data.

If Cook really cared about it’s user base, he’d put in an option to allow me to change this from default disconnect to off. It can default to disconnect, sure, but making me go into settings and turn off WiFi and Bluetooth every time I want to airdrop and worse WiFi every time I leave my house— it’s ludicrous.

It is quite obvious you have absolutely no clue what this option does.

I like the way the buttons in the Control Centre behave. Most of the time I don't necessarily want to actually disable WiFi, I just don't want to be connected to a particular network. This does that without interfering with "system" functions that use WiFi. If I really want to kill WiFi altogether, doing so in Settings is not what I'd call a hardship.

I just hope we don't get the confirm dialog mentioned in this article every time we hit the button. Showing it only once, or better yet including a "Don't show this again" option, would be my preference.

I don't think it's necessary to have a popup window to explain it. The current interface looks good. On the control center (six buttons), when you toggle WiFi or Bluetooth, it says "Not Connected". When you turn on "Airplane Mode", it says "Off" for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. On the control center (four buttons), when you toggle off Wi-Fil, it says (on top) "Disconnecting from 'your hotspot'". When you toggle off Bluetooth, if it's not connecting to anything, you don't see anything. If it's connected to a Bluetooth device, it will say (on the top of the screen) "Disconnecting from 'your Bluetooth device'".

Yeah this “feature” has a two fold for Apple. 1) It’ll help those -lost cause- users who can’t figure out how to work an iPhone. And 2) this change will allow all those business monitoring and collecting metrics based on WiFi/ Bluetooth while walking into physical locations to collect more accurate data.

If Cook really cared about it’s user base, he’d put in an option to allow me to change this from default disconnect to off. It can default to disconnect, sure, but making me go into settings and turn off WiFi and Bluetooth every time I want to airdrop and worse WiFi every time I leave my house— it’s ludicrous.

I am very annoyed with the introduction of these in the control centre - creating extra steps to turn wifi and Bluetooth as well as airplane mode on and off to ensure my privacy, which is paramount importance and to preserve battery life. Airplane mode is also dysfunctional. That Apple is inconveniencing me to monetize my movements really peeves me. The whole iOS 11 experience has been a clfk as far as the folks in our offices are concerned - all the little emoticon apps in iMessage has cheapened the Apple experience and made utilization of even imessaging harder to see and type. As someone who has been using an iPhone from its first introduction into the market - I am NOT happy with these “interface” changes.